Flight attendants have had a really...really rough go of it lately, and it doesn't appear the tension is going to wane any time soon.
A recent American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Washington DC had to be diverted to Kansas City due to an "unruly passenger" on board.
According to CNN, the 6 foot, 3 inch tall, 240 pounds 50-year-old told flight attendants "people were attempting to hurt him and they followed him on the plane." He also said, according to the arrest affidavit, that "he heard the individuals harming his family over the telephone."
Minutes after the man was seated, he asked for a cup of water and proceeded to walk to the cockpit of the plane. A big no-no.
He then grabbed some plastic silverware, holding it like a "shank," grabbed a small champagne bottle by the neck of the bottle and attempted to break the bottle on the counter, and then attempted to pull open the plane's exit door.
An even bigger no-no.
In order to subdue the man, a flight attendant grabbed a nearby coffee pot and bashed the man over the head twice with it. Other passengers ran up to try and assist the attendants handling the man.
Flight attendants told investigators they did not serve the man any alcohol during the flight.
As soon as the plane landed in Kansas City, the FBI came onboard to take 50-year-old Mouaz Moustafa away, and the other passengers were rescheduled for another flight.
2021 was a particularly bad year for unruly airplane passenger behavior according to the FAA. in the United States alone, 5,981 reports of unruly passengers were logged by the agency as of December 31 and of those, 4,290, nearly 72%, were mask-related incidents.
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